Apparition Read online

  NEW WORLD

  BOOK 4:

  APPARITION

  by

  C.L. Scholey

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com

  Published by

  TORRID BOOKS

  www.torridbooks.com

  An Imprint of Whiskey Creek Press LLC

  Whiskey Creek Press

  PO Box 51052

  Casper, WY 82605-1052

  Copyright Ó 2012 by C.L. Scholey

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  ISBN 978-1-61160-440-5

  Credits

  Cover Artist: Gemini Judson

  Editor: Melanie Billings

  Printed in the United States of America

  WHAT THEY ARE SAYING ABOUT

  NEW WORLD BOOK 3: IMPENETRABLE

  “I liked it¼”

  Carla

  RomFan Reviews

  Other Books by Author Available at Torrid Books:

  www.torridbooks.com

  New World Book 1: Shield

  New World Book 2: Armor

  New World Book 3: Impenetrable

  Dedication

  For Angie, Rene, Lucky, Skipper and Gigi

  Prologue

  The massive horse was flying across the terrain in the brilliant light of the planet’s two suns. A female rider clung tightly to the neck of the stunning beast. There was no saddle or bridle. Doss had almost missed her. Long pale legs clung tightly to the horse’s glistening sleek fur. Only a glimpse of her small calves and light white ass showed as she bobbed up and down with the rhythm of the horse. Even from a distance, Doss knew the horse was a stallion. Black as night from the top of his nose to the tip of his tail, the horse’s long mane flowed with the woman’s dark riot of waist-long curls. She was almost totally hidden from view.

  Doss watched with a grimace. The sour taste of disgust flooded his mouth, causing him to spit through his two-inch long white fangs. A male Tonan warrior was in hot pursuit of the human female. Doss could hear her expelled gasps of air. The little female was terrified. Even from this distance, Doss could smell it on her. The horse was determined. Pounding hoofbeats rent the air. The horse snorted in defiance. Long legs ate up the ground as though he was actually flying. He was fast, powerful and in his prime. He looked pissed.

  The gray Tonan, encased in body armor that molded to his muscular physique was racing from tree to ground to tree, eating up the distance between them. His long-fingered talons gripped the trees when he leaped. The tan-colored bark yielded as the talons sank with their grip then released; the springy tree bark bounced back into place. His thick-footed claws also sank deeply into the yielding sponge-like bark and terrain. The long gray tail snapped and cracked like a whip with each flying leap to harry the beast. The beast wouldn’t be harried. Doss smelled the Tonan’s determination. He was angry, volatile. The woman and stallion were in grave danger.

  The sure-footed horse was quick; the Tonan was quicker. When the Tonan jumped, he landed in front of the stallion. Without missing a beat, the stallion wrapped his massive body around the Tonan, sinking low in his spinning turn. The girl’s knee scraped the soft earth, but she clung tight. Her face was obscured by the mane, but Doss heard her sharp intake of breath. A lesser rider would have fallen off. It was obvious the female and the stallion were known to one another. They moved well together.

  Doss was already in motion. He had been when he first spotted the woman and the horse being chased. Doss hated filthy Tonans and he admired horses. They were a welcome addition to the planet and something he had never seen before. They were one of the nicer things the humans had brought to his home planet. Doss was far too heavy to ride the animals—even the powerhouse stallion before him. Whether or not encased in his body armor, he weighed hundreds of pounds. The armor absorbed into his skin when not in use. It had been a part of him ever since he could remember. A ‘gift’ from his Castian warrior father. A worthless male who had abandoned his Tonan mother, who had never offered the gift of immortality. A male too cowardly to fight for his female. No one, not even his father, wanted to lay claim to a bastard Tonian hybrid.

  A full-blooded Tonan female was a rarity on its own even before the females were killed. Tonan males didn’t like the idea of giving a piece of their armor to a babe. They were too selfish and cruel. They wouldn’t mate and risk dying if their females did. Because of their idiocy, most of their women aged and died off hundreds of years earlier. Doss’ mother was one of the last. Castian females had wanted nothing to do with Tonan males. It enraged the Tonans who also come into must every four hundred years; their hate compounded with no release. They had wanted revenge. But Castian women were far too well-protected by their mates. At least they had been. A Tonan spy had poisoned all the water on the Castians’ neighboring planet Bagron and on Doss’ home planet, killing the females and their male spouses who mated for life. Any visiting female was doomed.

  Since then the water had been purged for the human females to be used as bait for the Tonans’ captive prisoners, the hated Castian warriors. Doss wasn’t certain of the entire circumstance but when human males first landed there were many until the ratio of male to female was small. The Tonans soon realized the value and the uses they could garner from human females. Human males were approached with offerings of power and were promised positions in the Tonan ranks if they gathered their females and brought them to the planet. The Tonans had agreed to share their immortality and armor with these stupid males. The foolish greedy human males had agreed and found out soon enough why Tonan tails grew so long with their lies.

  The human shuttles were small and didn’t garner Castian interest, especially since the Castians had been fighting amongst themselves when the humans first appeared. The Castian leader, Cobra, had lost power on his planet for a short time and had been exiled. The foolish younger Castians had been imprisoned by the Tonans with the help of human females. None of the warriors had seen a female; they went into must and their own lust was the warriors’ downfall. Cobra had since regained power and now all focus was on defeating the Tonans and capturing the human females.

  Doss was alone—he had been for almost seven hundred years. It was hard for him to fit in anywhere. He wasn’t cruel like the Tonans; he had no tail as he told no lies. That made him suspicious. The Castians seldom came to his planet—except to launch an occasional attack. Since being abandoned by a father he never met, Doss had no illusion as to how cruel his father’s kind must be as well.

  His dearest mother lived to be one hundred and twenty-two. In the end, she had been so old and frail. Doss couldn’t save her. The healing waters and their newly discovered abilities had yet to be invented at the time. Castians had come upon the chemical by accident to rid themselves of slocks—frog-like red creatures with fangs that invaded the water and forced their armor up. Castians had no need to be healed because of their protective armor; the discovery the water healed came after the first human female had been cured of her hurts. The information had come from a Tonan spy.

  Doss t
hought it wouldn’t have mattered regardless. The healing waters couldn’t stop the aging process. His armor wouldn’t protect his mother and only companion. She had died in his arms in the secluded cave they called home since cast out after his birth, sentencing him to a life of immortal aloneness. As much as he had loved her, Doss hated her for that. But because his love overshadowed the hate, he let the Tonans and Castians bear the brunt of his anguish. His mother hadn’t abandoned him, ridiculed him—they had. She had taught him what love was…and sacrifice.

  The scene before him once again caught Doss’ attention. The Tonan bellowed in rage as the stallion made a successful turn around him. The horse was almost free of the Tonan’s reach—almost. The talons of the Tonan came down in a fast arc trying to slit the stallion’s belly open. Doss was there. The almost white-gray of his armor was a blur, an apparition to most when he was moving.

  Gray armor clashed with pale, sleek gray-white armor. The sound was explosive. The Tonan was flipped back off his feet into an airborne summersault. Doss scented the warrior’s stunned surprise and rage. The stallion winged Doss’ shoulder. Since Doss was fully armored and had sunk his claws into the sponge-like ground, he was unshakable. The stallion went down. Doss couldn’t stop what was happening. The Tonan had regained his footing already and would have attacked Doss if he hadn’t keep watch.

  The female human flew off to the side, rolling and hit a tree. She screamed as she bounced then fell forward, the breath knocked out of her. She was lucky the planet sported a sponge-like terrain. Doss had learned of something called a ‘concrete jungle’ on Earth. A substance similar to metal, hard and unyielding. If the ground were any harder, she would have been killed. The stallion was up in a heartbeat, unharmed and looking furious. He reared while standing over the prone girl. His eyes were wild. The beast meant business. He was ready to kill for the female.

  “Filthy hybrid,” the Tonan snapped.

  “Filthy Tonan,” Doss snapped back.

  “The female is mine.” The Tonan’s long tail cracked like a whip and the stallion screamed in rage when the female cried out in terror. She lifted her arms to wrap around her head protectively. Doss could see red welts on her back. The sight angered him; no doubt she had been beaten by that filthy whip.

  “It would appear she belongs to the stallion,” Doss replied.

  The stallion was tossing his head while standing guard over the female. His flanks were covered in a frothy sweat. It was apparent he had been running a long time. His neck was arched and he stomped his hooves down in a crushing angry gesture. He was careful of his charge beneath him. The female was curled into a small ball. The stallion screamed again. He bucked and a sharp back hoof shot out for emphasis. He was an impressive sight, but Doss knew ultimately the stallion would die if he were to fight a Tonan warrior.

  The Tonan would rip his fine black flesh to pieces. Doss couldn’t let that happen. Animals, real animals, were few and far between on his exiled planet the humans had named Ulsy. The planet had never been named before, no one had cared either way, and so it stuck. It seemed fitting as the humans had said it was the shortened version of ‘you’ll see.’ Years ago the poisoned water had been a death sentence to all females, animals and bugs included.

  “Are you not tired of holograms?” Doss demanded. “The animal is real live flesh. Are you so sick and twisted you would wage war on a horse, a simple animal?”

  “Keep the stallion, but I want the female,” the Tonan said.

  “The stallion is mine,” a small desperate voice cried.

  The female was now up on her elbows and knees. She faltered then tried to stand. She appeared weak; her shapely legs were long and wobbly like a young foal’s. Her hair was a wild riot of ringlets and curls. She was completely disheveled, filthy. The one side of her face sported an odd color of bluish black and yellow on an area of her cheek and temple. A memory flickered, she was bruised, hurt, something had struck her…or someone. It had been over seven hundred years since Doss had seen a bruise on a female, he himself had never bruised.

  Doss had an odd thought—she looked healthy but pale. The planet sported two suns and he knew humans tanned. He doubted she had been a captive for long but perhaps had kept herself hidden from view. Shuttles to the planet had stopped ages ago and she couldn’t have been recently captured from dying Earth—she was too healthy. Near the end of the shuttles the women were thin and sickly looking. Any captives brought from Earth were also malnourished, tired and seemed defeated. This female was far from defeated. Doss scented spirit.

  The Tonan pointed a long sharp talon toward her. “I own you.”

  “I’m not an object. No one owns me,” she said through clenched teeth. “I won’t be used by those filthy Castian bastards as a sex toy. And I sure as hell don’t want your filthy kind touching me either. I hate all of you; you’ve taken everything from me. Well you can’t have Caveat. He’s all I have left.”

  She crawled out from under the stallion while she spat her words at the Tonan, almost writhing in her anger.

  Caveat. Latin, a fine name and indeed a horse to beware of. Doss regarded the female. She stood proudly and didn’t bother to attempt to cover her nudity. Her fists were clenched. She had slender arms. Her long black hair did flow to her waist. She was slim, but not painfully so; she was big breasted with rounded hips. Her dark as night eyes flashed with fury and fear as she looked from the Tonan to Doss and back again.

  The female had been in their healing waters at some point in time; she was devoid of body hair. The Tonan traitor, who had since been caught by Castians and killed, had given Tonans a great deal of information about human females. Doss had been privy to some. Because he could control and mask his emotions, he was hard to spot or sense when suspended from trees. The things he had learned were fascinating.

  The healing waters for some reason attacked most human body hair as though it were dirt, leaving some of the facial hair, such as eyebrows and eyelashes alone as well as hair on their heads. Doss was almost hairless, but that was his heritage. Female Tonans and female Castians were also devoid of body hair. It had something to do with their males’ armor. Doss had seen a nude Tonan female; he and his mother swam together when he was a small boy. He had also seen a nude human female, one that did have hair on her legs, underarms, and the female area his mother called pubic—a curious sight to behold. This female was a real beauty. Better still she was neither a dirty Castian nor a filthy Tonan.

  Nimbly, she jumped back onto the horse that had bent a knee to aid her ascent. Otherwise there was no way she would have scaled a mountainous stallion at least seventeen hands high or perhaps taller. Her bare foot stood for a second on the bent knee before her slim leg settled across his broad back. Her hair fell forward to cover her high breasts; ringlets rested on creamy thighs. Her female opening was hidden from view in the horse’s mane. But Doss had smelled her stunning aroma. It made his knees quiver and his heart thump until his armor controlled the emotions. The scent brought memories to mind. For an instant, Doss fought instinct to keep his shield up. Doss had never lost the scent of females. Their unique female scent was an aphrodisiac. When he came into must four hundred years prior, he had thought he would die from need. He was spurned time and again.

  No female wanted a hybrid; they looked at him with loathing. Then the females died. All of them. Poisoned by the Tonans. The Tonans had sentenced both their kinds to a life of loneliness. They all knew how Doss felt then. But at least the Castians had male warrior mates as companions to ease the blow. And Tonans were so self-centered they didn’t need anyone else. It was how Doss had survived with no one. His shield, part Tonan, regulated his sadness for companionship. His Castian half battled the need for a warrior mate.

  Now there were human females to fill the void and Doss felt it was time he had one. They wouldn’t know what a hybrid was. An ache began in his loins that grew hot. Doss wanted this female. So did the Tonan. The Tonan lunged for her. The stallion reared and st
ruck out with his sharp hooves, they glanced off the Tonan armor clanging with sparks shooting. Doss knew the only way the Tonan would get the female was to kill the animal. The female could be hurt. Doss attacked the Tonan in his first talon to talon combat.

  Both armored beings sliced at one another. Their armor was impenetrable, at least Doss’ was. His gray-white shield hugged his huge body like a second skin, curving around all of his bulging muscles. Like the Tonan, Doss had claws and talons. From his mouth hung two-inch long, vicious-looking, pure white razor-sharp fangs. Doss had never had need to battle, he was avoided and he sensed he was feared. The experience was new and yet not. Memories over thousands of years bombarded his emotions and he remembered survival fighting instincts. The scent memories of predecessors before him bubbled fast and furious to the surface. Astoundingly, Doss wasn’t the only hybrid; though he knew of no other, he had their memories. Doss could kill; he suddenly realized why he was feared.

  Doss had one thing the Tonans and Castians did not. One of his talons curled into a hook at the tip. The end was a different color and made of a substance a human would call diamond. A defect all hybrids bore. So he had been told by his mother. Now he had the memory for it. It shocked him.

  Doss had never met another of his kind. As a rule Castians and Tonans hated one another. Doss had been told his mother was so beautiful Doss’ father couldn’t resist her. His father had come during a meeting between Tonans and Castians. The meeting hadn’t gone well. Both sides couldn’t get past their distrust. His father and mother had met in secret. His father had taken her during his first must. She was as young and inexperienced at twenty-two, as his father had been at four hundred and two, and she had repelled him too late. Doss was the result and no mating to bind them had taken place. His mother was exiled when he was born; Doss was considered a waste of a shield. That same shield had protected him and his mother then or both she and Doss would have been killed. They had fled and hidden in the cave Doss called home. Castians and Tonans were still at war. His father never came back for them.